Dedicating himself to painting at the age of 16, Hans Reichel decided to stop his studies very early, moving to Munich, where he frequented the Café Stéfanie, preferred meeting place of avant-garde artists until the 1920s. There he made the acquaintance of Rainer Maria Rilke and also Paul Klee— who would have a strong influence on his work. There followed, in 1924, encounters with Kandinsky and Gropius at the Bauhaus in Weimar. The works of Reichel started to be shown in Germany, while he travelled regularly in Europe and North Africa. In 1928, he moved to Paris and linked himself with Bissière who would introduce him to the Ranson Academy. In spite of his encounter with the Bavarian artist in 1929, it was not until after the war, in 1946, on the occasion of one of his last hangings, that Jeanne Bucher would present his watercolors to the public. The following year, as if subscribing to the poetic and pictoral climate that made the reputation of the gallery, the first exhibition mounted by Jean-François Jaeger, in October 1947, at the time of his taking over responsibilities at the age of 23, was dedicated to the presentation of his works. A dozen exhibitions marked the course of Reichel’s affiliation with the gallery.

The poetic, aquatic, alchemical, and biological world that Hans Reichel depicted in his works submerge us in the constant amazement of Nature, through the vibration of colors and the balance of elements. His entire oeuvre shines with a natural musicality, at once fragile and infinite, which transcends the real and whose grace cannot but touch us.